Monday, April 19, 2010

Zuda: How does that f*cking work?

What a weekend eh? I got fist bumped by Kato Kalin at the Anaheim Comic Con. How was yours?

Another ranking has come and gone and ELDRITCH! is still at the top spot. Don't bring out the cake yet, with 11 days left in this month's Zuda competition the battle still rages on. To all of you that have helped support us by voting and helping spread the word thus far, Aaron and I owe you a great deal. It's exciting and we couldn't be prouder and more thankful. But we have to keep it up. The contest is hemorrhaging fierceness and of course your help is needed more then ever.

That's what today's blog is about. You and Zuda.

We've gotten many reports about how the inner workings of Zuda have caused some brain 'sploding over the past couple of weeks. Being new to this form of comicking, Aaron and I did some sleuthing and dug up a few answers, which we will pass on to you using this handy visual aid. (Thanks Aaron!)

Voting, Favorites, Rating, and Comments ALL MATTER. Didn't know that? Well neither did we. That was until we came across this post by Zuda head honcho (Nightcrawler fan and fantastic Volley Ball player) Ron Perazza:

"Okay guys, you've seen the ten competitors and you've read their comics. The competition is officially on! I'd like to point out some of the finer points of how we're collectively evaluating these comics.

First off, there is the vote. You'll see the big VOTE button right on the Competition Page and on the Comic Information drop-down on the Comic Page itself. This is your number one decision making tool. Vote for the comic you want to see become an ongoing series.

Next up is the RATING. You'll find this just below the vote, in the Comic Information section of the Comic Page. This is a more subtle tool that lets you rate each comic on a scale from one through five stars. While you can only Vote for one comic at a time, you can Rate them all. This will be a crucial tool in close races where more nuance is needed in order to accurately express your opinions. Incidentally, the Rating tool will also come in handy for letting us know how you feel the ongoing series (like BAYOU) are going.

We've also got FAVORITES. It's in the same Comic Information panel, near the bottom. Some people have confused this with voting so let me clarify. You can Favorite any comic you want, any time. It will then show up on your Profile Page. It's a simple way for you to navigate to the comics you like (yeah...I mean, once we have more than 12 on site) and for letting other people know you're tastes. Especially if you're active in COMMENTING. Comments, of course, can be found directly beneath the comics themselves. A quick sidebar about Comments: the newest is at the top, closest to the comic. I know this is a bit backwards but we're trying something out here - bear with us. The thinking is that we want the most recent comments up top, near the comic itself. That way the comic and the comments are updated near each other so that users need to do as little scrolling up and down the page as possible. Let's see how that works and feel free to give us FEEDBACK on it.

Jumping around that Comic Information section you'll see that we're tracking the VIEWS as well. We figure some people just like to read without any greater level of participation. That's ok by us and as far as the competition goes, having a widely read comic is a great indicator of success. It's worth noting that this is one of the criteria that does not require registration. This is an indicator of how many times the comic was read by anyone, registered or not.

So, what I'm saying here is that everything counts. The Vote is obviously the main indicator, but we're looking at the rest of this information as well. Check back here on the blog or on the Competition Page itself for updates about who is in the lead, who is in second place and so on."

- posted on Zuda.com November 2, 2007 - 10:07am

Hopefully this answers some of your questions about the not complicated mathematical formula of Zuda and makes it easier on all of you feeling overwhelmed when attempting to vote for ELDRITCH!

NEXT TIME: More art, less wordiness.

"It’s not the strongest that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." –Darwin

2 comments:

A good idea to pass this along to your fans. We put up a similar tutorial last month, and it really helped us a lot. All of those things count bigtime. Favorites make a big difference as well since they are a public display of support that everyone can see, while votes are invisible. Good work on this, and good luck this month! April is the strongest month I've seen yet on Zuda.

About Me

Drew Rausch is co-creator of the subculture hit SULLENGREY (with Jocelyn Gajeway) and tentacled masterpiece ELDRITCH! (with Aaron Alexovich). Proof of his artistry can be also be seen in the pages of Boom Studios’ Cthulhu Tales and Zombie Tales, and SLG's Haunted Mansion and The Secrets of Sarah Winchester. While waiting for the Elder Gods to rise from the deep, he enjoys classic horror movies (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari being his favorite) and cupcakes. He currently haunts a dusty apartment in Southern California with his bride and 3 cats.
He has a new website www.drewrausch.com